Anybody try this out yet, with or without the Telepods you can buy in the store?

I've never played the Skylanders game either, so I'm not sure what to expect exactly.

I like the Angry Birds games and like the thought of having interactive bits with the games, but I nearly soiled myself when I saw the list of Telepod sets, the list of exclusive Telepods, and the pricing. It looked like there were about 12 different exclusive Telepods that came with different sets which averaged about $20 a pop.

To me the Telepod figures aren't interesting enough to collect, but I'd love to experience most of them in the game, but with a $300-ish price tag to accomplish this I'm not sure I even want to get started down this path at all. I know you can play with these and knock down a stack of blocks, but that really doesn't seem that interesting and not for $20 or so a set.

Am I missing something here? Am I a scrooge? Or has someone tried these (and/or Skylanders) and can tell me its worth the price tag.

My four and a half year old loves the telepod concept. He has been collecting the birds since he got some for Christmas and a big part of it for him is "telepoding" new ones into his game. He keeps them in a Darth Vader case and everything. He went nuts when he saw the Lando Series 2 gift set the first time. It has been so pervasive with him that now he notices QR codes everywhere and wonders how they relate to the Angry Birds game.